Baron Braswell was speaking to a potential voter on Election Day when she informed him that she was planning to both register and vote on Tuesday.
“She knew she wanted to vote for me, so she did same-day registration, and she went in there,” Braswell said. “There’s a lot of young people that want to register the same day.”
Braswell is hopeful that those same-day registration votes will prove beneficial in his bid to defeat incumbent Chris Yakabouski in the race for the Battlefield District Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors seat.
At the end of the night Tuesday, Yakabouski led Braswell 3,856 to 3,832, a difference of just 24 votes. Braswell called the Spotsylvania General Registrar on Wednesday to see how many provisional ballots had been cast or could still be on the way.
Chelsea Leviner, the elections operations administrator in the registrar’s office, said that 102 ballots are outstanding in the Battlefield with the possibility of more on the way. Leviner said 69 are provisional ballots, while 33 are absentee ballots that arrived Wednesday but were postmarked by Tuesday. Leviner said more absentee ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday will be counted if they arrive before Friday afternoon.
Leviner said it is likely that a recount will take place — no matter the outcome of the remaining ballots — because the margin is so close. A candidate may request a recount if the margin is less than or equal to 1%; in this case, it’s just .62%.
Leviner said recounts aren’t fun for election officials but they are necessary. She said they are performed using the same equipment as regular voting. The machines must go through logic and accuracy testing. They also must be reprogrammed. Each ballot will then be run through the tabulation machine.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Braswell said. “I feel better about it today after talking to [the registrar’s office] than I did before.”
Braswell was on a rollercoaster after polls closed on Tuesday, at one point taking congratulatory calls informing him that he had won by 138 votes. He later saw the shift that showed Yakabouski slightly ahead.
Yakabouski was unavailable for comment on Wednesday but posted to his campaign’s Facebook page, thanking his family and volunteers before adding “24 votes to be reelected as your representative.”
Braswell said he is not conceding.
“If I were down 50, I’d be bummed,” Braswell said. “But down 24, I’m happy about it.”
